In: Chemistry
1. In the Deacon process for the manufacture of chlorine, HCl
and O2 react to form Cl2 and
H2O. Sufficient air (21 mole% O2, 79% N2) is fed to provide 35%
excess oxygen, and the
fractional conversion of HCl is 85%.
(a) Calculate the mole fractions of the product stream components,
using atomic species
balances in your calculations.
(b) Again calculate the mole fractions of the product stream
components, only this time
use the extent of reaction in the calculations.
(c) An alternative to using air as the oxygen source would be to
feed pure oxygen to
the reactor. Running with oxygen imposes a signi cant extra process
cost relative to
running with air, but also offers the potential for considerable
savings. Speculate on
what the cost and savings might be. What would determine which way
the process
should be run?